1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to prophylactic and therapeutic compositions of matter and methods for administering said composition to living organisms, particularly livestock, such as cattle and sheep. The several embodiments of the invention allow protection of such livestock against microorganism attack encountered in a disease syndrome commonly known as shipping fever.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A multifaceted disease syndrome usually associated with the transportation, concentration, and confinement of animals, such as cattle, sheep, horses, similar wild species, and the like, is commonly known as shipping fever. This disease syndrome, which annually costs cattle producers million of dollars in the United States alone, is most commonly encountered in stocker and feeder cattle and sheep which have been recently weaned, transported to market, sorted and sold, and again transported to a new home, such as a farm, ranch, or feed lot. The disease can even occur in the absence of transportation or other stressful circumstances. Accordingly, while the stress adaptation response can be a significant and predisposing factor in the development of shipping fever, certain microorganism pathogens can, under conditions of adequate exposure, cause the diverse facets of the disease complex independent of the stress adaptation response.
Treatment of the bacterial phase of shipping fever in livestock has previously involved one or more of the following modalities. Firstly, aqueous bacterins containing a particular species of the bacteria associated with the syndrome either with or without an absorption delaying adjuvant, such as aluminum hydroxide, have been used. These simple aqueous bacterins have failed to induce sufficient resistance to be of value, especially within the time periods required by usual management practices common in the livestock industry. Secondly, water in mineral oil emulsion vaccines have been used against Pasteurella multocida infections in water buffalo and cattle. Use of this single pathogen vaccine does not provide the broad spectrum of biologic resistance required for prevention of the shipping fever complex as experienced in the North American livestock industry. Thirdly, prophylactic use of antibiotics and sulfonamides by feed, water, or individual administration has met with only limited success due to the tendency of bacteria to become resistant to antibiotic and chemotherapeutic agents. The widespread use of such agents has led to the development of resistant bacterial strains which multiply vigorously in the absence of normal competitor organisms whose populations have been reduced by widespread and sometimes injudicious use of antibiotic and chemotherapeutic agents.
Prior water in oil adjuvant bacterins have not contained the multiplicity of bacterial species required, as now taught by the present invention, to induce the broad spectrum of immune response necessitated by this complex disease syndrome. As a result, the health and productive efficiency of stocker and feeder livestock has deteriorated due to the lack of efficient broad spectrum antimicrobial biologics and to the widespread and often injudicious use of antibiotic and chemotherapeutic agents. Accordingly, even though killed bacterial vaccines have previously been available for individual treatment of a particular disease effect caused by an identifiable bacteria and even though antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents have long been available, costly losses of cattle still occur due to the shipping fever complex which are directly attributable to the bacteria associated with the syndrome.